


Kata

by Holde_Maid



Category: Highlander: The Series
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-26
Updated: 2016-05-26
Packaged: 2018-07-10 10:06:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6978928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Holde_Maid/pseuds/Holde_Maid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From up on the roof of Notre Dame, someone is watching...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kata

**Author's Note:**

> RATING: Gen, I'd think - Allusions from afar is the worst you will come across here.
> 
> Disclaimer  
> These characters belong to the universe(s) of Highlander: The Series, of which I own NO part whatsoever. Davis/Panzer do, as far as I know. No money made, no harm or infringement on anybody's rights intended.

Methos was watching from afar. His place on the roof of Notre Dame was not exactly cosy, even though he had pressed his body into a niche to hide from the harsh wind, but it served its purpose. Besides, he did not notice the cold anymore. His mind was concentrated on processing what he saw. This moment could, after all, make all the difference between life and death one day. Needless to say he wanted to remember every detail.

Far below him - too far to feel his presence - Duncan MacLeod was going through the motions of a kata on the roof of his barge. At the moment he was concentrated on perfecting his legwork, but sometimes he seemed to use katas as his meditation. The funny thing was, Methos often did the opposite. He used medition as training for his body. Either worked. It just depended on where you felt more at home, and what answered to your needs more easily. The kata was nearer to MacLeod's heart than other forms of meditation.

Those motions were familiar; Methos knew them by heart. There were slight differences, of course, because he had learned this kata a few hundred years earlier than MacLeod, but the differences would not have sufficed to surprise him in a fight. MacLeod had not yet been born at that time.

His youth, however, was not the main reason why Methos had decided he'd be safe in the Highlander's presence. No, it had more to do with MacLeod's predictability. His moods were easy to detect, for a man more than ten times his age, and even easier to influence. You didn't have to be much of a judge of charactert to know one was relatively safe in his proximity. He was a gentle man. He did like to fight, but even so he, too, avoided the Game to some extent. Generally speaking, MacLeod was not inclined to utter random challenges. Not, Methos had soon realised, out of the same pragmatic considerations that were part of Methos' own reasons. No, MacLeod had moral qualms. My God, the boy still had a code of honour!

To Methos, honour was mere inexperience talking, but he had learned long ago that you could not tell the inexperienced ones so. They never listened anyway.

This one was certainly inexperienced. Young. So very young. You could see the youth in his every motion. Even in this kata. He still tried to look good as he practiced the kata. He tried to look competent...

You could always tell the ancient ones apart by their raw style of fighting. Not that they used mere brute force, but they rarely wasted time on looking competent. If anything, you had to try and look the opposite. Clumsy. Off balance. Whatever inspired risky attacks in your opponent. You made your body lie - another thing you could not teach the honourable. Why? He sighed impatiently. Honour! A mirage that only merited a good conscience if you were good at lying to yourself as well as those you judged.

It was so stupid of them! Younglings like this one judged things by their code of honour, regardless of how another might live by a different but equally justified set of rules. So arrogant. So ... young. Why did it take one so long to learn spiritual pragmatism? It was stupid. Amusing sometimes, but stupid.

And cute.

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End file.
